This isn’t just a bad season. This is a complete organizational failure, a 2-6 implosion years in the making, and the calls to burn it all down are no longer whispers—they are broadcast-level declarations.

For a franchise that has demanded patience, preached analytics, and operated in secrecy, the results are now unavoidably, visually, and statistically “as bad as they’ve ever been.”

In a blistering segment on the “Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show,” The Athletic’s Zac Jackson held nothing back, methodically dismantling the entire Cleveland Browns leadership structure, from General Manager Andrew Berry to Head Coach Kevin Stefanski. The core of his argument? The entire six-year regime will be remembered for one catastrophic mistake, and its fallout is now wasting the prime of a Hall of Fame player.

“This six years is going to be remembered as the Deshaun Watson era, the Deshaun Watson mistake,” Jackson stated flatly. “Mostly you’re going to remember the Deshaun Watson failure. And the fallout… is wasting the career of Myles Garrett, who’s this team’s next Hall of Famer.”

That single, devastating trade has become the original sin of this regime, a move that has painted the franchise into a corner from which, Jackson argues, there is no escape. And the attempts to fix it have only resulted in “another Giant F.”

The “Giant F” and the Quarterback Debacle

The source of the most recent fan outrage has been the complete collapse of the offense, led by third-round rookie quarterback Dylan Gabriel. To Jackson, this failure wasn’t just predictable; it was guaranteed. He recalled his scouting trip to the Senior Bowl, a moment that defines the chasm between the front office’s “plan” and reality.

“The first guy coming out of the tunnel was Dylan Gabriel,” Jackson recounted. “I immediately never wrote a word or said about a word about him for the next four months because he was so small.”

Jackson was baffled that after a “year and a half plan” to recover from the Watson disaster, the team’s solution was to acquire Kenny Pickett for a fifth-round pick and draft Gabriel with a top-100 pick.

“It’s a giant F,” Jackson said, pulling no punches. “You can’t be any surprised, zero surprise, because this is what it always was going to be. He does not have the physical ability to succeed in the NFL and he never was. It’s crazy to use a top hundred pick on [him].”

The situation is made even more baffling by the team’s handling of backup Shedeur Sanders. While the organization doubles down on the failing Gabriel, Sanders—a player Jackson noted “looks like an NFL quarterback”—hasn’t been given a single chance.

“They’ve given him zero reps,” a host exclaimed. “He’s been here six months now and they’ve given him zero snaps with the number one offense… He’s one turned ankle, one concussion… away from going in the game, and they won’t give him a snap in practice. That’s crazy!”

Jackson explained that this stubbornness has now backed the coach into a corner. “We painted this situation… it’s Kevin and Dylan versus everyone,” he said. “The more he doubles down on Dylan… that’s how people are going to view it.”

A Leadership Vacuum: “What’s The Secret Sauce?”

While Stefanski is forced to face the media daily, Jackson pointed his sharpest criticism at General Manager Andrew Berry, who has been conspicuously absent.

“Did you have a problem with it?” Jackson was asked about Berry skipping his press conference. “Yeah, I mean I don’t like it,” he replied, noting Berry’s history of avoiding the media after the Flacco trade and other key moves. When the hosts revealed this was an “organizational decision” to make Stefanski the sole spokesperson, Jackson was incredulous.

“Is this a thing that they came up with?” he scoffed. “Or they made an organizational decision to draft Dylan Gabriel with a top 100 pick? That wasn’t right either.”

This culture of “secrecy” is at the heart of the frustration. Jackson contrasted the Browns with other, more transparent organizations and skewered the front office’s perceived arrogance.

“The Browns act as if they’re smarter than everybody else,” a host offered. “And yet they’re the worst franchise maybe in all of sports,” Jackson finished.

“If everything’s a secret and you’re winning games, then everything’s a secret,” Jackson explained. “But when everything’s a secret and you’re two and six for the second straight year… what’s the secret? What’s the secret sauce here, guys? You’re spending more money than any team in the league and losing more than any other team in the league.”

No Way Out: “It’s Time for Everybody to Move On”

This isn’t a slump that can be fixed with a new play-caller. Jackson detailed how Stefanski has already played all his cards.

“They changed defensive coordinators. They changed special teams coaches. They fired the offensive coordinator… they fired the next offensive coordinator. They changed Kevin’s offense, now they’re supposedly back to Kevin’s offense and it’s flopped,” Jackson listed. “The one constant has been Kevin and the wide receivers’s coach.”

With the team 2-6 and the offense looking historically inept, Jackson believes the end is no longer a question, but a certainty. “I have come to believe that that’s the fact,” he said of impending firings. “Because I just think that the optics matter… What does the stadium look like in December? What does the offense look like?… I just think they’re going to be left with no choice.”

The real horror, however, is that the organization is trapped. Jackson, who months ago suggested the team trade Myles Garrett, now says that’s impossible.

“You can’t trade Miles now because of the dead cap,” he stated. Watson’s crippling $81 million cap number for next year, combined with other massive contracts, has the team in financial jail.

The result? The 2026 roster “probably is worse than this one,” Jackson warned. He and the hosts ran down the list of players not under contract: all five starting offensive linemen, David Njoku, Jerome Ford, top backups, key defensive players like Martin Emerson and Ronnie Hickman. The team will be forced to field a roster of “25 players that are first or second year.”

“The only way the team’s better,” Jackson concluded, “is if you hit on quarterback.”

And that is the ultimate indictment. The very regime that created this mess—by failing on Watson, by fumbling the QB plan with Pickett and Dobbs, and by committing a “Giant F” on Dylan Gabriel—is the one that would be tasked with finding that savior.

It’s a “layered discussion,” Jackson admitted, but his conclusion was simple and final. This era has failed. It’s time to clean house.

“It’s just time for everybody to move on,” he said. “New voices, new blood are needed… It’s time, man.”

The only problem? As the hosts lamented, there is “no faith that Jimmy Haslam’s going to hire the right guy.” The firings may be inevitable, but for a fanbase that has seen this movie before, it feels like the start of another painful, predictable cycle.